Chat sessions, such as provided by Microsoft Instant Messenger program, IBM SameTime program, Microsoft MSN Messenger program, Microsoft Windows Messenger program, Yahoo Instant Messenger program, and AOL Instant Messenger program, are well known today. Typically, a person at a client workstation initiates the chat session by invoking his or her chat session client program and identifying one or more other people to participate in the chat session. The person can identify the other people to participate in the chat session by accessing a directory, selecting individuals from a predefined list of people or selecting a predefined group of people. Then the person requests that his or her client computer send to a server, the identifications (such as e-mail addresses or IP addresses) of the people to participate in the chat session. In response, a chat session server program tries to connect to the client workstations of the other people selected to participate in the chat session to determine if the other people are currently on-line. For any of the client workstations of these other people that are currently on-line, the server creates the chat session by invoking their respective chat session client program and identifying the members of the chat session. For any of the client workstations of these other people that are not currently on-line, the server notifies the originator that such people are not available for a chat session at this time. Next, any of the members of the chat session can type a message into a text field on their client workstation, and then “send” the message. In response, the respective chat session client program sends the message to the server, and the server sends it to the other participants in the chat session. In some implementations of chat client programs, communication between clients is done on a peer to peer level, i.e. directly from client to client without mediation by or assistance from a server program. In either implementation, the effect is the same and there is the appearance that the clients are communicating directly to each other in the chat sessions. In response to a chat session message, the client workstations that receive the message will display the message, along with the identity of the sender. In the same manner, other participants can subsequently type a new message at their respective client workstation, and that new message along with the identity of the sender appears on the client workstations of the other workstations, nearly in real time.
Some people leave their client computers on-line most the time, even when they are not available such as when they are off duty, at lunch, away from the office or even sleeping. If another person attempts to create a chat session with a person who has left his or her computer on-line but is not available, the server will nevertheless ping the client computer, receive a favorable response and assume that the person is available to participate in the chat session. Consequently, the server will establish the chat session with this unavailable person, and the initiator may assume that this other person is available. The initiator of the chat session or other available participants, if any, in the chat session may then assume that the unavailable person is reading the chat messages, when that is not the case. This may lead to misunderstandings, omissions in work assignments, etc.
A known IBM Blue Pages program provides a directory of employees worldwide. Under the covers, as known to the industry, this is an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) implementation. When an employee is accessed via the IBM Blue Pages directory, a web page displays directory information (for example, telephone number, geographic location, manager, etc.) as well as the current local time of the employee, and a picture of the globe with a vertical stripe indicating the time zone of the home office of the employee. Also, a brightness of the globe indicates the time of day, i.e. if the local time is midday, the globe will be bright, if the local time is twilight, the globe will be grayish and if the local time is night, the globe will be dark. The IBM Blue Pages directory web page also states the shift of the employee, i.e. first, second or third.
A Lotus Notes Calendar program displays to a person who schedules a meeting the normalized local times of invitees.
An object of the present invention is to help inform participants in a chat session when another participant, presumably joined into the chat session, is not really available for a chat session even through his or her computer is on-line.